摘要
神经系统是机体最重要和最复杂的系统,而其中神经管的发生是一个重要的涉及到建立中枢神经系统(central nervous system, CNS)原基的胚胎学事件,是指从神经板出现到神经管关闭的发育过程。在这个过程中,神经板必须准时准确地关闭形成神经管,神经系统才能得以正常发育;否则将出现神经管缺陷(neural tube defect, NTD),表现为各种脑和脊髓的发育畸形,如脊柱裂、露脑畸形等。露脑患儿均不能存活,脊柱裂患儿视情况而定,特别影响社会劳动力的是一些隐性脊柱裂患者,他们均给家庭和社会带来了严重的负担。为此,近一个多世纪以来,胚胎学家和发育神经生物学家坚持不懈地应用了许多不同的动物模型和不同的实验技术,试图探讨从神经板出现到神经管闭合这一涉及多因素调控的过程及机理,以避免和预防NTD 的发生,所以正常神经管形成的分子机制和NTD 的发病机理已成为当今神经科学研究的热点和前沿。
神经管闭合后,神经管上皮细胞的进一步增生、分化和迁移对于神经系统正常形态和功能的建立十分重要。它的前端呈现三个膨大,依次称为前脑泡、中脑泡和菱脑泡,前脑泡发育为端脑和间脑,中脑泡发育为中脑,菱脑泡的前部发育为后脑,以后演变为脑桥和小脑,菱脑泡的后部发育为延髓,神经管尾端形成未来的脊髓。神经管发生和神经管关闭后的神经上皮细胞继续发育、分化和迁移,直至最终形成结构正常和功能完善的CNS,从基因水平而言,上述过程是一系列基因按照高度特异的时空模式表达并相互作用的结果。
已知氧是保证各种生命活动最基本和最重要的因素,近年的研究证实人类胚胎、大鼠及小鼠胚胎发育中均存在低氧区,那么作为体内对低氧的重要调节因子——低氧诱导因子-1(hypoxia-inducible factor-1, HIF-1)是否参与其中呢?已有研究发现HIF-1α-/-小鼠显示有神经发育缺陷,包含神经管未闭和脑血管发育异常。但HIF-1α表达缺失是怎样影响神经管关闭的呢?确切的作用和分子机制又是什么呢?其在涉及NTD 发生的众多基因中是否处于调节者的地位呢?近年研究发现,有许多基因参与中枢神经系统发育的调控,外环境也是通过这些基因发挥作用的。作为参与体内对低氧调节的重要转录因子HIF-1,是否可能通过启动不同靶基因表达来参与神经管上皮细胞的增生、分化和迁移
The development of neural tube is an important embryologic event involved in the primordium establishment of the central nervous system. During this process, nervous system can not develop normally until the neural plate closes on time accurately, or the neural tube defect (NTD) would occur, such as spina bifida, encephalocele, anencephaly, etc. Patients suffered from spina bifida, especially spina bifida occulta, brought large burdens to the whole society. Nowadays, in the field of developmental neurobiology, the studies of molecular mechanisms of the development of nervous system have been increasingly focused on. Scientists on embryology and developmental neurobiology continuously used various animal models and experimental technics trying to find the concrete mechanisms from the emergence of neural plate to the closure of neural tube in order to avoid and prevent the occurrence of NTD.
Following the closure, neuroepithelium continues to proliferate, differentiate and migrate, which plays an important role in the establishment of normal morphology and function of nervous system. Subsequently, prosencephalon (forebrain), mesencephalon (midbrain) and rhombencephalon (hindbrain) appear in the anterior region of neural tube. When the neural tube is completely closed, these regions are termed the primary brain vesicles. Then the prosencephalon subdivides into the two lateral telencephalon vesicles (presumptive cerebrum), and midline diencephalon (presumptive thalamus). The rhombencephalon divides into a cranial portion, the metencephalon (which gives rise to the pons and cerebellum), and a cauda region, the myelencephalon (the eventual medulla). The proliferation, differentiation and migration of the neuroepithelium are essential for the structural formation and functional establishment of the nervous system. In terms of gene expression, such a process results from the expression and interaction of an array of genes that work in a highly specific, spatio-temporal manner.
As known, oxygen is the most fundamental and important factor to guarantee various vital activities. Hypoxia regions have been found in the development of human embryos and murine embryos in recent studies. So, could it be possible the hypoxia-inducible factor-1 (HIF-1), as an important factor of regulating hypoxia, may be involved? HIF-1α-/-mice have been shown to exhibit defects in neural tube development,including neural tube patency and cerebral vascular malformation, whereas the mechanisms by which HIF-1αexpression defects influences the closure of neural tube remains unknown. Also what’s the exact function of HIF-1αand molecular mechanisms of this? And among the genes involved in the NTD, could it be an organizer? Recent studies have revealed that a number of genes participated in the regulation and control of development of the central nervous system and some environmental factors exert their functions via these genes as well. As an important hypoxia regulating factor, could it be possible that through promoting different target genes, HIF-1 participates in the proliferation, differentiation and migration of the neuroepithelium? Up to date, however, little is known about gene expression and regulation of this complicated process. In addition, no report is available on the spatio-temporal pattern of HIF-1αexpression during embryonic development. Up to date, however, little is known about gene expression and regulation during neural tube genesis. RNA interference (RNAi) is an innate cellular process, which is activated by a double stranded RNA molecule with 19-23 nucleotide duplexes in cells from Caenorhabditis elegans to mammals. The RNAi is triggered by degradation of single-stranded RNAs of identical sequences. Therefore, RNAi technology can be used to silence gene expression by directly targeting its specific sequence of mRNA. Besides the widely used strategies for knocking down gene expression in academic research, RNAi technology, generated by small interfering RNAi (siRNA), has been used in therapeutic studies of human diseases including cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, viral infectious diseases, etc. Nowadays increasingly more researchers have begun to use siRNA to inhibit the definite genes expression of mammals. After designing, some vectors may express short hairpin RNA (shRNA) and it may be processed to be a siRNA molecule with 21nt in vivo. Subsequently, RNAi processes begin and give rise to post-transcriptional gene silencing (PTGS). By this means, the expression of siRNA can be continuous in the transfected mammals’cells and results in the effect of continuously, steadily inhibiting target genes. Therefore, as an ideal
tool instead of gene knockout, RNAi technology can be used to study the function of a certain gene in the developmental biology. In the present study, the spatio-temporal expression of HIF-1αmRNA and protein were investigated during the nervous system of mouse embryonic development using the whole-mount embryo in situ hybridization, immunohistochemistry, etc in order to provide morphological evidence for revealing the possible mechanisms of HIF-1αin the development of central nervous system. Subsequently, HIF-1αgene is selected to be the target gene to interfere by using RNAi technology. Using molecule clone technologies, mouse HIF-1αplasmid of eukaryotic expression and the specific siRNA for HIF-1αprotein are successfully constructed. And in the level of cell lines, both Western blot and immunostaining experiments consistently suggested that the DNA vectors carrying the siRNA hairpin of targeting the overtransfected HIF-1αgene in cells are effective and specific. We also showed that the mRNA level was decreased when siRNAs were transfected into the cells. Meanwhile, the feasibility on neural cell lines of siRNA has also been tested. All above is to decrease or block the expression of HIF-1αgene. This has established a theory basis and experimental evidence for later using it on whole mount embryo culture in vitro to examine the functions of genes, observe the changes of embryo morphology and related downstream genes after transfection, and reveal its exact molecular mechanisms during the neural tube closure, the development of neuroepithelium and the genesis of NTD. The results are as follows: 1. The expression of HIF-1αin the developing nervous system of mouse 1.1 The expression of HIF-1αmRNA during developing nervous system was examined by using whole-mount embryo in situ hybridization. Results show: At E8.5d, expression of HIF-1αmRNA was weakly detected at the cranial portion and caudal end of the neural tube in mouse embryo. With closure of the neural tube the expression of HIF-1αmRNA was increased dramatically in the prosencephalon, branchial arches 1, branchial arches 2, and metencephalon at E9.5d, especially it was showed that there was the higher level of HIF-1αmRNA in the developing eyes and the lower level in the mesencephalon and primary heart. At E10.5d, besides the regions where positive signals were detected on E9.5d, HIF-1αmRNA was clearly observed in the telencephalon, diencephalons, developing limbs, and caudal regions. At E11.5d HIF-1αmRNA was strongly detected in the commissural plate,
rostral region, branchial arches 1 and 2, metencephalon, myelencephalon, limbs, and terminal caudal region of the neural tube. The present results suggest that HIF-1 might be involved in the development of the mouse neurulation. 1.2 The expression of HIF-1αprotein in the nerve tissue was detected from E12.5d to E17.5d by immunohistochemistry section staining. At E12.5d, the positive signal of HIF-1αprotein expression was detected in the telencephalon, mesencephalon, the surrounding regions of the fourth cerebral ventricle, myelencephalon, developing eyes and retina, spinal cord and the surroundings of the vertebral canal, heart and liver, etc. At E13.5d, HIF-1αprotein could be detected in the cupular part of neocortex (namely the future cerebral cortex), the posterior of mesencephalon, diencephalon (the surroundings of the third cerebral ventricle), myelencephalon, the juncture regions of myelencephalon and spinal cord, developing eyes and retina, heart and liver, etc. It is the time of E12.0~E13.0d that neuroepithelium migrates from the mantle layer to the marginal layer. The expression of HIF-1αprotein in many regions suggests that HIF-1αmay be involved in the differentiation and migration of the neural progenitor cells. At E14.5d, the positive signals was clearly observed in the telencephalon, mesencephalon, diencephalon (hypothalamus), the fourth cerebral ventricle choroid plexus, the dorsal and ventral part of myelencephalon, developing eyes and retina, spinal cord, heart and liver, etc. At E15.5d, besides the regions where positive signals were detected on E14.5d, HIF-1αprotein was also found in the surroundings of aqueduct of mesencephalon. During this period, primary cortex notablely thickens, cell layers dramatically increase and cells of individual encephalic regions continue to differentiate and migrate, therefore, the positive signals can be detected in most encephalic regions such as telencephalon, mesencephalon, diencephalon, myelencephalon, etc. Till E17.5d, positive cells mainly localized in the central and posterior parts of telencephalon, the third cerebral ventricle choroid plexus and its surroundings. During this period, the expression regions of HIF-1αprotein diminish, suggesting that the expression of HIF-1αprotein decreased after the elementary completion of the differentiation and migration of cells. 2. The construction of HIF-1αsubclone and its eukaryotic expression In order to construct the eukaryotic expression plasmid of HIF-1αgene, cDNA of HIF-1αgene was reversely transcribed from the total RNA of HIF-1αgene. Then the cDNA
was subcloned into the eukaryotic expression vector pcDNA3.1-HA. This construct was transfected into 293T cells and the expression of HIF-1αprotein was measured by Western blot. As known, HIF-1αprotein is not stable with a very low expression level under normoxia conditions; cells were treated under hypoxia conditions for an hour after transfection and harvest. Thus, the significantly increasing expression of HIF-1αprotein could be detected. It may be analyzed that in these HIF-1αoverexpressing cells, HIF-1αwas detectable in a small cell population which was treated with an hour hypoxia even in normoxia, indicating that the normal normoxic proteasomal degradation capacity for HIF-1αis overridden under these conditions. On the whole, successfully constructing the eukaryotic expression plasmid of mouse HIF-1αgene has established the base of the studies which focus on testing the siRNA of HIF-1αgene. 3. The construction of interfering plasmid of HIF-1αand identification of its effectiveness The U6 promoter vector was adopted and a 22bp siRNA was constructed through the hairpin, which could be produced by the DNA vector. The hairpin cDNAs were generated through annealing of the complementary oligos synthesized, where ApaⅠand EcoRⅠsites were constructed. The hairpin cDNA as an insert was subcloned into pBS/U6 vector through ApaⅠand EcoRⅠsites. The correct clones were verified by KpnⅠ/EcoRⅠand KpnⅠ/XhoⅠdigestion. To determine whether the siRNA we generated could effectively reduce the expression of HIF-1αprotein in cultured cells, we first transfected the siRNA vectors pBS/U6/HIF1αi-Ⅰ~Ⅲinto 293T cells where HIF-1αprotein was overexpressed. To show the specificity of the siRNA targeting, we used EGFP as a control. The data of Western blot, immunostaining and RT-PCR demonstrated that pBS/U6/HIF1αi-Ⅰ~Ⅲcould specifically silence the expression of HIF-1αprotein to some extent in cells., The effectiveness and specificity of siRNA has been further verified on the neuroblastoma cell lines (SH-SY5Y) to ensure the feasibility on neural cells. We also proved that some dose-effect relationship does exist between the effects of HIF-1αgene silencing and the dose of plasmid pBS/U6/HIF1αi. This has established a theory basis and experimental evidence for later using it on whole mount embryo culture in vitro to examine the functions of genes, observe the changes of embryo morphology and related downstream genes after transfection, and
reveal its exact molecular mechanisms during the neural tube closure, the development of neuroepithelium and the genesis of NTD.
引文
1. DeSesso JM, Scialli AR, Holson, JF. Apparent lability of neural tube closure in laboratory animals and humans. Am J Med Genet, 1999; 87(2): 143-162.
2. Semenza GL. HIF-1 and human disease: one highly involved factor. Genes Dev, 2000; 14(16): 1983-1991.
3. Semenza GL. Expression of hypoxia-inducible factor 1: mechanisms and consequences. Biochem Pharmacol, 2000; 59(1): 47-53.
4. Lee YM, Jeong CH, Koo SY. Determination of hypoxia region by hypoxia marker in developing mouse embryos in vivo: a possible signal for vessel development. Dev Dyn, 2001; 220(2): 175-186.
5. Ylikorkala A, Rossi DJ, Korsisaari N, et al. Vascular abnormalities and deregulation of VEGF in Lkb1-deficient mice. Science, 2001, 293(5533): 1323 1326.
6. Guo S, Kempheus KJ. Par-1, a gene required for establishing polarity in C. elegansembryos, encodes a putative Ser/Thr kinase that is asymmetrically distributed. Cell, 1995; 81: 611-620.
7. Cogoni C, Macino G. Post-transcriptional gene silencing across kingdoms. Genes Dev, 2000; 10: 638-643.
8. Elbashir SM, Harborth J, Lendeckel W, et al. Duplexes of 21-nucleotide RNAs mediate RNA interference in cultured mammalian cells. Nature, 2001; 411(6836): 494-498.
9. Sverdlov ED. RNA interference--a novel mechanism of gene expression regulation and a novel method for study of their functions. Bioorg Khim, 2001; 27: 237-40.
10. Psul CP, Good PD, Winer I, et al. Effective expression of small interfering RNA in human cells. Nat Biotechnol, 2002; 20(5): 505-508.
11. Yang SS, Pierce TE, Yoon K. Specific double-stranded RNA interference in undifferentiated mouse embryonic stem cells. Mol Cell Biol, 1995; 81(4): 611-620.
12. Misquitta L, Paterson BM. Targeted disruption of gene function in Drosophila by RNA interference (RNAi): A role for nautilus in embryonic somatic muscles formation. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, 1999; 96: 1451-1456.
13. Maclean HE, Kronenberg HM. Expression of Stra13 during mouse endochondral bone development. Gene Expr Patterns, 2004; 4(6): 633-636.
14. Diana L, Ramirez-Bergeron M, Celeste Simon. Hypoxia-inducible factor-1 and the development of stem cells of the cardiovascular system. Stem Cells, 2001; 19(4): 279-286.
15. Copp AJ, Greene ND, Murdoch JN. The genetic basis of mammalian neurulation. Nat Rev Genet, 2003; 4(10): 784-793.
16. Maltepe E, Schmidt JV, Baunoch D, et al. Abnormal angiogenesis and responses to glucose and oxygen deprivation in mice lacking the protein ARNT. Nature, 1997; 386: 403-407.
17. J. 萨姆布鲁克,D.W. 拉塞尔著,黄培堂等译,分子克隆实验指南,科学出版社,2002 年8 月。
18. Luque JM, Adams WB, Nicholls JG.. Procedures for whole-mount immunohistochemistry and in situ hybridization of immature mammalian CNS. Brain Res Protoc, 1998; 2(2): 165~173.
19. 蔡文琴主编,现代实用细胞与分子生物学实验技术,人民军医出版社,2003 年1月。
20. Iyer NV, Kotch LE, Agani F, et al. Cellular and development control of O2 homeostasis by hypoxia-inducible factor 1α. Genes Dev, 1998; 12(2): 149-162.
21. Jeffs P, Osmond M. A segmented pattern of cell death during development of the chick embryo. Anat Embryol (Berl), 1992; 185(6): 589-598.
22. Jain S, Maltepe E, Lu MM, et al. Expression of ARNT, ARNT2, HIF1, HIF2 and Ah receptor mRNAs in the developing mouse. Mech Dev, 1998; 73(1): 117-123.
23. Compernolle V, Brusselmans K, Franco D, et al. Cardia bifida, defective heart development and abnormal neural crest migration in embryos lacking hypoxia-inducible
factor-1α. Cardiovasc Res, 2003; 60(3): 569-579.
24. Tomita S, Ueno M, Sakamoto M, et al. Defective Brain Development in Mice Lacking the Hif-1αGene in Neural Cells. Mol Cell Biol, 2003; 23(19): 6739-6749.
25. 蔡文琴主编,医用神经生物学基础,西南师范大学出版社,2001 年4 月。
26. 赵宁辉, 毛伯镛, 周旺宁等. 低氧诱导因子-1α在大鼠脊髓损伤中的表达, 中华创伤杂志, 2003; 19(9): 544-547.
27. Kimura S, Kitadai Y, Tanaka S, et al. Expression of hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF)-1αis associated with vascular endothelial growth actor expression and tumour angiogenesis in human oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma. Eur J Cancer, 2004; 40(12): 1904-1912.
28. Theodoropoulos VE, Lazaris ACh, Sofras F, et al. Hypoxia-inducible factor-1 alpha expression correlates with angiogenesis and unfavorable prognosis in bladder cancer. Eur Urol, 2004; 46(2): 200-208.
29. Ian L, Campbell. Cytokine-mediated inflammation and signaling in the intact central nervous system. Prog Brain Res, 2001; 132: 481-498.